More details needed for proposed smoking bylaw

Posted Mar 29, 2012 By Stacey Roy

EMC News - Councillors have asked staff to amend the proposed smoking bylaw and bring it back to committee for further review and debate.

Elected officials struggled with striking the right balance between smokers and non-smokers when it comes to public parks. Coun. Chris Cummings asked to see where the proposed smoke areas would be in parks before he would make a decision on whether to ban smoking in all parks across the board or not.

"I need to get a sense of it to see how practical it is," Cummings said.

He had a particular interest in the size of these proposed areas that councillors Shawn Pankow and Lorraine Allen put forward as a preferred method to the smoking bylaw as it respects children as participants and bystanders and makes the law easier to follow and enforce.

"If we're silent it's going to create confusion," Mayor Dennis Staples added in favour of defining the area clearly.

Coun. Jay Brennan expressed his desire to see the walking path in Lower Reach Park open to smokers and non-smokers alike, while Coun. Dawn Quinn emphasized the need to exempt the RV Park in Victoria Park and the area where boats moor in recognition that "that is their home."

Another section of the draft bylaw speaks to no smoking near doors, windows or air intake systems in a publicly accessible building including businesses. It was clarified that businesses that open onto the sidewalk will not have to adhere to this clause as sidewalks fall under another provincial act. However, it was noted that back patios such as the one found at Rob Roy's would be put at a disadvantage if the wording was to go ahead as proposed.

"We will look into that," confirmed Wayne Brown, CAO.

Pankow noted a recent report recommends a smoking ban on all restaurant patios across Ontario.

In terms of this clause's overall request of a three-metre setback, Pankow was successful in receiving a friendly amendment to increase it to five metres.

"Anybody walking through there probably doesn't get the level of protection the bylaw intends," Pankow said.

To ensure protection of the community's children is achieved councillors turned their attention to enforcement of the bylaw with Brennan asking for a graduated implementation that would include warnings for a few months before fines would be applied. According to the draft bylaw, anyone caught breaking this law could be fined up to $5,000 in accordance with the Provincial Offences Act.

Quinn picked up this thread and asked that the proposed graduated enforcement policy not begin until all signage related to the new bylaw is in place.

Allen summed up the proposed bylaw by saying: "It's a guide and it's to make our community better."

The draft bylaw will come back to committee-of-the-whole meeting for further discussion.

sroy@perfprint.ca